"Born on" or "Best before"

Drrth ‘nailed it’ on the referenced thread: “Both have their problems and the best solution is to have both.”

Cheers!

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Agreed. Tell me the bottling date, and if you have a guideline for optimal freshness, feel free to tell me that, too. And preferably in a clear format (something like "Bottled on: 01/15/2013 — Best by: 05/15/2013") with legible, durable ink.

I see "sell by" dates on those products, not "best by". the product is still perfectly good for another week or so after that date, much longer if meat and it's frozen after taken home.

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Yes - that is true. The rules vary with the different products and how they are packaged and stored prior to sale - lots of regulations and red tape. It just all adds to the confusion where there isn't one consistent system across the board - for producers and consumers alike.

Agreed. Tell me the bottling date, and if you have a guideline for optimal freshness, feel free to tell me that, too. And preferably in a clear format (something like "Bottled on: 01/15/2013 — Best by: 05/15/2013") with legible, durable ink.

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That's exactly what I was thinking!
I still think that Bottled / Canned on dating is best.
Best by dating doesn't necessarily mean anything when it comes to freshness, just that it's "best by" this date which is the last day it's any good. Stone has an interesting concept with their IPA, but it's specifically brewed and marketed that way, kind of hard to miss that on the label.
How long has that beer been sitting on the shelf at the store, out of refrigeration, unprotected from the light? Might be a little easier to determine how fresh that beer is with a visible, readable bottled/canned on date and make your decision making on what you're willing to pay a little different, or not.
I also dislike the Julian dating used by some brewers as well.
IMO.

If you go to Bell's website they claim their beers (excepting Expedition and Old Coast) are good up to 6 months. If you don't already know that you may be led to believe a beer is "fresh" because of it's "best by" date when in fact it could be 5 1/2 months old.

Bottled date leaves no room for interpretation.

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If I don't already the info from Bell's website, i don't see how I would be led to believe that a beer is fresh by it's "best by" date because a Bell's beer does not have a "best by" date it. If it is in fact 5 1/2 months old, it will be quite obvious, because in fact the bottling date is printed right on the bottle. It is in fact quite obvious to anyone regardless of what they know about Bells website exactly how old the beer they are buying is...

One is incomplete with out the other. Bottling date lead to uninformed people complaining about "old and out of date" beer being on shelves when they are still very much within an appropriate date range. Best by dates do not always paint a true picture of age.

Bottle dating in no way should be mandatory, there really is no reason for it. If consumers provided the breweries enough incentive, not buying beer, they would all date their bottles. Breweries keep selling and moving their product, there is zero reason for them to change their process.

While packaging dates do seem somewhat better, I don't really have a preference as long as the date is labeled as either "packaged-on" or "best-by." If the brewery is already going through the trouble of bottle-dating, I'd like to know whether that beer I have my eye on was bottled two weeks ago or is two weeks past its 'expiration.'

IMO best before dates are bull shit for IPA's. I have a few Chinnookies that the best before date is 3/13, and it's tastes like an old stale IPA. This same Online store also sent me "fresh" Jai Alai that was canned on 11/2/12, that shit is 10 weeks old right now and it tastes like it. I sent him an Email so we'll see how he responds, if not I'll out him so others won't have to waste money on stale beer.

I emailed them last October and got this info which i pulled from my site:

Uses a best before date and a bottled on date. From the brewer: We have a "bottled on" date on our master cartons and packaged on dates on our 12 pack. Our 22 ounce bottles will continue to have a vintage bottling date on the bottom left side of the label that is notched.

With the 12-pack container though, makes it kind of hard. Hopefully he can answer you about length between "bottled" & "best by".

When I am out in stores near beer sections I check out what people are buying, just out of curiosity, and in the years of doing this I honestly don't recall the last time I saw someone grab beer off the shelf and hunt around for dates. I still think the amount of people that check this kind of thing is extremely small (probably just us).

As for the guy telling me the brewer should set the best by date because consumers are stupid, well that may be true, your average consumer is stupid, but for those of us that aren't, I want to know when you put the beer in the bottle, and I don't really give a damn when you think it is best by, I'll decide that.

I was reading that "Finestkind" may be best before two months old. But Smuttynose uses a "Best before" date on their bottles, so how are supposed to tell how old it is? If it has a date of March 2013 today about how long ago would it have been bottled? I think I would prefer a "Born on" date myself...especially for an IPA.

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Last night I picked up a leftover single smutty pumpkin w/ a best before March 11th,2013.
That tells me that it was bottled on Sept. 11th.As already said,smutty gives 6 months from time of bottling.

Orval has a "bottled on" date and "best buy" date, which I think is pretty ingenious and great for the knowledgeable beer consumer. They add Brett to the beer at bottling, so it chews away at it over the course of a few years. Too fresh a bottle of Orval, and it's a somewhat bland Belgian Single. Too old a bottle, and it's a complete funk bomb and, in my opinion, kills a lot of the subtle and delicate elements of the beer. Either way, you could gauge the level of funkiness from where the present dates sits on the printed spectrum.

At first I thought that you were kidding about the “best after” date but with some web searching I found:

P.S. Another beer that I think should have a one year "best after" date is Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. I just recently purchased two 4-packs of this beer and I will be aging them for at least one year. Brooklyn Black Cholocate Stout is just too boozy for me when it is fresh.[/quo
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is my favorite Imperial Stout. Not sure what you mean by boozy but suspect that it's why i like BBCS fresh and think it loses a bit of flavor after 6 months.

“Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is my favorite Imperial Stout. Not sure what you mean by boozy but suspect that it's why i like BBCS fresh and think it loses a bit of flavor after 6 months.”

I perceive a fresh Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout as being “hot”; in other words I can taste/perceive the alcohol of that beer (which is 10% ABV). A similar beer of Old Rasputin (9% ABV) does not taste “hot” to me whatsoever and I enjoy drinking that beer fresh.

When I age a Black Chocolate Stout a year it tastes significantly different to me. The “hot” is gone and I enjoy the complex flavors that result from a year of aging. I have never aged this beer longer (e.g., 2 years or more) but I suspect that this beer would get even better with additional aging.

Everybody has a different plate and different sensitivity to varying flavors.

“Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is my favorite Imperial Stout. Not sure what you mean by boozy but suspect that it's why i like BBCS fresh and think it loses a bit of flavor after 6 months.”

I perceive a fresh Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout as being “hot”; in other words I can taste/perceive the alcohol of that beer (which is 10% ABV). A similar beer of Old Rasputin (9% ABV) does not taste “hot” to me whatsoever and I enjoy drinking that beer fresh.

When I age a Black Chocolate Stout a year it tastes significantly different to me. The “hot” is gone and I enjoy the complex flavors that result from a year of aging. I have never aged this beer longer (e.g., 2 years or more) but I suspect that this beer would get even better with additional aging.

Everybody has a different plate and different sensitivity to varying flavors.

Cheers!

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I have a friend who ages BBCS and has for years. I've drank some of his that was 6 years old. He claims it mellows out . I claim it fades. As you said everyone plate is different. That's a good thing, otherwise these forums would be boring.

I have a friend who ages BBCS and has for years. I've drank some of his that was 6 years old. He claims it mellows out . I claim it fades. As you said everyone plate is different. That's a good thing, otherwise these forums would be boring.

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I think I would agree with you at that age. But I had a side by side of a fresh and one year old and the difference was amazing. IMO...definately better at a year. Six years however...meh..

Its crazy how people think all brewers are hippies who just want every body to have the best time of their lives. They are businesses, period. And they have to rely on wholesales and retailers to help keep beer fresh. They want you to spend money on the stuff they make. duh. Its in every one's interest to extend the dates as far as reasonably possible. Its up to you to decide if you want to buy fresh beer or old beer.

Last night I picked up a leftover single smutty pumpkin w/ a best before March 11th,2013.
That tells me that it was bottled on Sept. 11th.As already said,smutty gives 6 months from time of bottling.

And the pumpkin ale was still nice and tasty........

Cheers

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That can not be. On 01/03/13 i was drinking a Smuttynose Fineskind with a best by date of 06/06/13. I posted a thread and it was deleted. It did not taste fresh to me either. Why do these dates need to be rocket science?

I loathe 'best by' dates. They are useless. And beer should be required to have a clearly visible bottled on/born on/canned on date. Although then I'd find out that half the IPA's I drink were bottled 5 months ago and I'd have to pass on them

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I think the "Best By" dates are for the benefit of the brewer, distributor, and retailer.

That can not be. On 01/03/13 i was drinking a Smuttynose Fineskind with a best by date of 06/06/13. I posted a thread and it was deleted. It did not taste fresh to me either. Why do these dates need to be rocket science?

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Oh it can be.....trust me,e-mail the brewery if you doubt it.They are gonna tell you the same.
That finestkind was bottled on December 6,2012.

1. It would be ideal to have "Bottled on" and "Best by" dates clearly printed on bottles/cans. If you only put one date on the bottle, make it the bottled/canned date. Don't use stupid codes where I have to be fucking Robert Langdon to decipher it.